Media Matters memo called for hiring private investigators ‘to look into the personal lives’ of Fox employees

How many of these tactics did Media Matters actually engage in? Sources inside the organization either don’t know or won’t say, although one did confirm that Media Matters dispatched trackers to events featuring Fox News employees, including to at least one where News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch spoke.

What’s clear is that Media Matters believed it had many allies in the media and the left-wing political world. “We should consider sponsoring some of the top progressive blogs,” Frisch wrote. “They are upset with MMFA for not putting more money into the blogosphere and this would be a good opportunity to mend fences.”

Ditto for various other parts of the Democratic coalition: “We should work hard to enlist LGBT, Hispanic, African American, Women, Religious Leaders and Groups against Fox News.”

In another section, Frisch suggests convincing liberal film documentarian Michael Moore to make “a major documentary about Fox News and Fox News personalities.”

In at least two places, the memo makes suggestions that in retrospect look like prescient predictions. The first concerns Rupert Murdoch: “Murdoch’s problems in the U.K. (hacking the cell phones of prominent Brits) are hardly known to U.S. news consumers. We should do our best to bring embarrassing Murdoch news to the attention of his U.S. audience.” The effort appears to have succeeded.

Finally, the memo suggests that drones in the Media Matters research department ought to ghost-write an extended hit on the network: “[W]e should write a book under David’s name that savages Fox News and Fox News employees. The market for this is likely huge.”

Is it? We’ll see next week, when that book is released.

Tucker Carlson is The Daily Caller’s editor-in-chief, a former CNN and MSNBC host, and a current Fox News Channel contributor. Follow him on Twitter.